


drinking in the summer

by AmericanEireann



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, auto erotic assimilation, sad grandpa is sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-22
Updated: 2015-09-22
Packaged: 2018-04-22 20:35:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4849640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmericanEireann/pseuds/AmericanEireann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place after the events of Auto Erotic Assimilation. Summer finds and comforts her grandpa. No ships involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	drinking in the summer

Summer couldn’t concentrate.

The adventure on Unity’s planet had gone – oddly – to say the least, but her grandfather’s behavior upon his return was even stranger. Faced with new rules and destruction of his property, Grandpa Rick had simply stared at her mom blankly, acquiescing without a single word of protest. Summer knew that this had shocked her mother too, but Beth was unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth and let Grandpa Rick walk away unquestioned.

Summer shifted in her bed uncomfortably. She was worried beyond what the situation warranted, she knew, and she gave up reading her magazine and walked to the window. The moon was bright and full outside, and she left her room to go sit on the front steps of the house, wondering vaguely how many light-years she’d traveled by portal that afternoon.

After a few minutes, she noticed that the door to the garage was still open but there was no glow of electricity to light her grandpa’s workshop. She took a step towards the garage and saw her grandfather sitting quite motionless at his desk, face buried in his arms. Uncertainly she approached him, noticing for the first time shattered glass surrounding him and – was that ash? Hair prickled at the back of Summer’s neck.

“Grandpa Rick?” she whispered. No response. 

She placed a hand on his shoulder. He was so thin – practically skeletal under the thin fabric of his lab coat. “Grandpa Rick,” she said more loudly, and her grandfather sat up sharply.

Whatever brief relief Summer felt at the knowledge that Rick wasn’t dead turned quickly to surprise at the look on his face. Drunkenness, she was accustomed to, and indeed he did reek of liquor, but Grandpa Rick looked like he had been crying. Crying? 

“What the fuck do you want?” he asked.

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, I’m fucking great. Do you want something, or can I get back to…” He gestured vaguely around the garage and belched. “I’m busy. Science and shit.”

“Well, that’s bull,” Summer answered skeptically. She pulled up a stool and sat across from him. “Come on, talk to me. You never really said what happened with you and Unity. You two have, like, a fight or something?”

“It’s none of your goddamned business,” Rick said, but he hardly met her eyes. He pulled out his flask. “I’m not drunk enough for this conversation.”

Summer watched him chug the green liquor and her eyes widened with sudden understanding. “Oh my God, Grandpa Rick. Did Unity, like… dump you?”

“Yeah, fuck it, okay? Is that what you wanted? Will you leave me alone now?” He belched loudly and tried not to look at his granddaughter; his eyes fell on the broken lightbulbs and the pile of ash that had once been the Cronenbergian creature. He was suddenly terrified that Summer would figure out what he’d tried to do. “I’ve gotta clean this shit up,” he muttered, rising clumsily to grab a broom and trashbag.

Summer attempted to disguise the pity on her face with practicality. “C’mon, Grandpa. You can do that some other time. Come inside and we can watch TV or something.”

Rick, though privately grateful for the change of subject, tried to act casual. Swaying slightly, still clutching his flask in one hand, he leaned on Summer for support as they returned to the house. “Yeah. Yeah. Let’s see what those intergalactic morons are up to this time.”

A breeze blew past the garage. A flurry of ash stirred and drifted away, never to be seen again.


End file.
